Cabletron Wins CTI Magazine's Network Equipment Router `Product of the Year' Award.

ROCHESTER, N.H.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 15, 1998--

Market's First Switch/Router with WAN Continues to

Capture Industry Honors

Cabletron Systems (NYSE:CS), the premier provider of enterprise-class networking solutions, announced that the SmartSwitch Router (SSR) 8000, 8600 and 2000 family with WAN modules won the distinguished CTI Magazine "Product of the Year" award for the Network Equipment Router category (published January 1999).

"CTI Magazine prides itself on having the most in-depth and objective product reviews of any telecom or datacom publications," said Rich Tehrani, Group Publisher for CTI. "Tremendous resources have been devoted to developing TMC Labs, and the TMC Lab engineers and CTI magazine editors spent many weeks picking the most important and influential products of 1998. Cabletron's SmartSwitch Router distinguishes itself as one of the most forward thinking and useful products announced in the field of voice/data convergence - a field that is abundant with new products."

According to a recent Dell'Oro Group study, the SmartSwitch Router holds an impressive 33% market share in the chassis-based Layer 3 switch category. Cabletron also is a leader in chassis-based Layer 3 Gigabit Ethernet ports shipped with 22.4% market share.

Announced at Networld + InterOp in October 1998, the industry's first WAN modules for a switch/router extend Layer 4 application-level control, Quality of Service (QoS) and security features across the enterprise. This unique solution delivers customers private networks with lower cost, greater bandwidth utilization and better application performance, while providing the services required for next-generation extranets and multimedia networks.

The SSR WAN interfaces include a two- and four-port serial interface operating at port speeds up to 8 Mbps, and a two-port High-Speed Serial Interface (HSSI) operating at port speeds up to 52 Mbps. These new modules deliver wire-speed support for Layers 2, 3, and 4 switching with full-function IP and IPX routing over Point-to-Point (PPP) or Frame Relay connections. The quad port serial interfaces include hardware accelerated compression and optional hardware accelerated encryption enabling high-performance, secure networking forming the basis for extranet applications.

"We've seen dramatic performance improvements since we've implemented the SmartSwitch Router," said Don Slade, president of the regional service provider ISOA. "From my perspective, the SSR is the ideal router for service providers: wire-speed gigabit switching and routing, WAN interfaces, and a full complement of routing protocols including BGP-4. Using BGP we peered with UUNET, MCI and AGIS. Our customers reported a radical reduction in latency. They were actually calling us to see why their performance had increased so dramatically - the answer was simple; the SmartSwitch Router."

Pricing and Availability

The WAN interfaces for the SSR 8000, 8600 and 2000 will be available in December 1998.

Pricing is as follows:

-0-

Interfaces          Description                        US List Price

2xHSSI (45Mb/s)     SSR 8000/8600                         $10,995
                    dual-port HSSI module

4xSerial (8Mb/s)    SSR 8000/8600 quad-port                $6,495
                    serial with h/w compression

4xSerial (8Mb/s)    SSR 8000/8600 quad-port serial         $8,495
                    with h/w compression and encryption

4xSerial (8Mb/s)    SSR 2000 quad-port serial              $6,495
                    with h/w compression

4xSerial (8Mb/s)    SSR 2000 quad-port serial with         $8,495
                    h/w compression and encryption

2xSerial (8Mb/s)    SSR 2000 dual-port serial              $2,995

About Cabletron

Cabletron Systems, the premier provider of enterprise-class networking solutions, delivers dependable network access and communications to millions of people worldwide. With scaleable products designed for Fortune 1000 enterprise networks, service providers and small businesses, Cabletron provides simple, reliable and cost-effective business solutions for the information age. Cabletron's web site can be reached on the Internet at http://www.cabletron.com.

The Dell'Oro web site can be reached on the Internet at http://www.delloro.com.